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Ramphele targets social media

Social media will be an important tool for author, activist and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele, who announced a newly-formed “party political platform” on Monday.

“You can multiply your troops very quickly on social media,” Ramphele told reporters in Johannesburg.

“Today we have a team of dedicated professionals. Thank God for information technology.”

Ramphele said she had an “energetic” team of five.

Ramphele has called her party political platform Agang SA, which means “build South Africa” in Sepedi.

She said she intended using it to contest the 2014 national elections.

“What I am going to be doing, and have been doing, is consulting every citizen because they deserve as much attention.

“It’s called a party political platform because it’s still in a consultative stage,” Ramphele said.

Every South African had a right to contribute to the platform and to shape it.

“Our approach is to go from village to village, township to township, young people, old people, rich people, poor people, because the country belongs to all of us,” she said.

“Ours is a consultative process.”

Ramphele said the party name could change through the consultations.

“The name of Agang SA party will be confirmed, modified or changed by the consultation process. That is the working name, and if it is confirmed, that is the name under which we will contest elections.”

She said Agang SA would bring additional things into the political space, such as a campaign for electoral reform, the launch of a war against corruption, and improving education.

It would develop public policies and plans to put these into practice.

A policy director was putting together working groups to come up with policies in key areas. The platform’s policies and implementation strategies would be evidence-based, said Ramphele.